"Oy, watch where you're going!" Exclaims Dawn.
"Who's standing on my foot?!" Asks Hugo.
"WHERE ARE WE?!" Screams Misty.
"I don't know which was more stupid..." Groans Brock. "Forgetting to bring any pokémon that know flash, or not turning back when we realised we'd forgotten!"
The gang are currently stumbling around Rock Tunnel. It's very dark, and none of them can tell where they're going. After a while, the exit appears…
"Get in! Finally! We made it! I'm gonna make a complaint to the Kanto council. That place really needs wheelchair access..." Brock complains. He stops next to a signpost which reads 'Lavender Town 5 miles'.
Misty doesn't look happy. "Let's put that place behind us. Come on- AW SHIT!" Brock and Misty look around, it turns out they're alone. They've managed to lose the rest of the gang in the darkness of the cave.
"Reckon we go look for them?" Misty asks, doubtfully.
"No point. Would be harder than finding a Weedle in a haystack. All we can do is wait here."
"FINALLY! The exit! Now remind me why we couldn't head south past the day care centre to reach Vermillion." Dawn complains.
"The old underground tunnel got destroyed by gangs of kids..." Hugo explains for the 9th time.
"Ah, it feels good to- NO WAY! YOU ARE TAKING THE PISS!" Dawn stops in her tracks, looking horrified.
"What's up Da- OH CRAP!"
Dawn and Hugo realise they've ended up back where they started.
"Your fault, idiot!" Dawn punches Hugo in the stomach. "I told you to turn right, not left!"
"Oh, I'm sure we'd have had NO trouble finding our way if we'd all listened to Miss Berlitz the queen of directions!"
Dawn looks around, suddenly looking less angry and more worried.
"Um, Hugo…?"
"Apology NOT accepted! That hurt!"
"That's not what I'm on about… where is everyone?"
The pair look around, realising they've somehow split from the rest of the group.
"Y'know, I was wondering why Misty went suspiciously quiet..." Hugo slaps his knee, regretting not making sure everyone was together.
"I guess we've gotta go back in..." Dawn sighs.
"I REALLY hope Brock's looking after Leaf..." Hugo frowns as he follows Dawn back inside.
"Um… hello?! Anyone?!"
Leaf is helplessly lost. And scared. And alone. It's pitch black. She can't even see her hand in front of her face.
"Stay calm. You can do this. You can do this." She quietly mutters to herself.
After some stumbling around, she begins to see what appears to be an exit in the distance. Hoping Hugo and co. will be awaiting her there, Leaf quickens her pace in an attempt to be reunited with friends.
Turns out the light Leaf saw was merely the sun shining through a small hole in some rocks. Most people would have no chance of fitting through such a hole, but Leaf's fragile and skinny body has no trouble squeezing beneath the cracks. She crawls out, finding herself in a small, enclosed field. Why does it feel so warm?
Leaf's eyes widen as she takes in the sight before her. She's standing at the edge of a small, roughly circular field. Tall cliffs completely enclose the field. In the centre, there's a pool of lava with a very small chunk of land in the centre of the lava pool. Upon the land is a tall tree that looks similar to an oak tree. Its roots stem from within the lava, giving the tree a unique red glow. Sleeping upon the top of the tree is a big bird with wings of fire.
"Could it be..." Leaf whispers quietly to herself.
All of a sudden, the fiery bird pokémon opens one eye. Perhaps it has sensed Leaf's presence. In one swift movement, it stands up upon the tree and spreads its huge wings. "TREEEEEES!" It cries in a high pitch.
"GAH! Help me!" Leaf is so frightened, she reaches for her pokéball. "Staravia, help!"
"Ravia!" Leaf's bird cries. Staravia is quite chubby, since Leaf usually gives almost all of her food to it.
The overweight flying type doesn't seem too fazed by the presence of a legendary pokémon.
The fire and flying type gives Staravia an intimidating glare, and swoops down from its tree, swooping over the lava pit and landing upon the grassy field, inches away from Staravia. The height difference is very visible, yet the two pokémon begin to engage in a lengthy conversation.
"Ravia ravia! Starrrrrrravia! Ravia star star!"
"TREEEEEEES!"
It goes on like this for well over a minute, all the while Leaf is frozen on the spot, unable to move an inch due to trembling in fear.
Eventually, both flying types turn and stare at Leaf, only intensifying her level of fear.
Then, in a shocking move, the fire and flying type legendary pokémon slowly walks over to Leaf. It lowers its wing in front of her, as if gesturing for her to climb on its body. Leaf hesitates for a long moment, but eventually does as the pokémon wishes. The moment she's upon its back, the mighty pheonix wastes no time in soaring into the skies.
Leaf's bottom feels hot, and she begins to sweat, all due to the heat radiated off this beast.
They reach a scary height as Staravia flies behind them, although much slower and lower.
They get so high, Leaf can see both entrances to Rock Tunnel. She sees Lavender Town in the distance, as well as Cerulean City, despite the two locations being very far apart.
Leaf holds on tight to the fire type, beginning to increase her trust in it.
Meanwhile, back in Rock Tunnell...
"It's left here! I'm sure!" Hugo insists.
"Believe it or not, I think you're right this time!" Agrees Dawn.
"No! I said left! Not right!"
"No, I meant YOU are be right!"
"What? You think we should go right? Well I thought it was left, but okay."
"No you idiot! You are right to go left!"
Well which one is it?! Right or left?! Make your mind up!"
All of a sudden, very bright lights begin to flash and the ground begins to shake.
"Wh-what's going on?!" Shouts Dawn, who can barely be heard over the sound of the sudden earthquake.
"Beats me!" Hugo shouts back as the flashing and shaking intensifies.
All of a sudden, everything gets REALLY bright as Hugo and Dawn are seemingly teleported somewhere.
They appear in what appears to be a room filled with super advanced technology. Both men and women in black suits are busy at work.
"Success!" One woman at a computer cheers.
Hugo is a little embarrassed when he sees that he'd started holding Dawn's hand when the commotion begins. Or was it her who grabbed his? He quickly lets go before she seems to notice.
"Quick! Hit him!"
There is a stool in front of the spot where Hugo appeared. Very quickly, a muscular man of roughly average height comes sprinting towards him. He leaps off the stool and gives Hugo a mean right hook punch to the face. It REALLY hurts. The man was wearing a steel glove with spikes on. Hugo collapses to the floor as blood streams from his cheek.
Upon realising what's going on, Dawn looks at Hugo in fear and screams very loud.
"Quick! Cuff them both!" Before they can react, both Hugo and Dawn are wearing sturdy handcuffs.
"WHAT THE HELL?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Dawn yells in defiance. "LET US GO!"
"Ma'am, I'm sorry, we cannot." Explains one of the men in a black suit. "Not you, or your boyfriend."
"What?! Boyfriend! Yeah right!"
There are around thirty men and women crowding around Hugo and Dawn. The youngest, a spotty faced teenage boy, pulls out some sort of scanner. He scans Dawn with some red beam of light, then turns to the woman stood next to him.
"Huh. Embarrassment. So she DOES like him?"
"This is NOT the sort of crap you were trained to use the scanners for!" The woman yells angrily.
The boy seems to ignore her. He scans Hugo, then scans himself."Woah! It says 'Fuck you! What the hell?! This giant dude wants to bone me? He doesn't look gay!"
"NO!" The woman stomps her foot. "It means he wants to fuck you up! LOOK OUT!"
"GYAAAAH!" Right on cue, Hugo begins his RAMPAGE. He drop-kicks the man nearest to him. Several of the uniformed people draw a gun out of their pockets. Luckily, Hugo is one step ahead. He knows a trick, due to his laziness. He shakes his hips, and knocks a pokéball off his belt. "RAAAAAAA!" Tyranitar appears, with lightning reflexes it immediately knows what to do. It picks up Hugo with one arm, and Dawn with the other. The two of them sit on its shoulders while the uniformed people open fire. Any bullets heading towards Dawn or Hugo Tyranitar blocks with its fists. As rounds of ammo bounce harmlessly off its rock-hard skin, it stomps its way through the room, smashing up desks and computers as it goes. More and more of the workers give up and run away, until there's nobody left. By this point, Hugo has managed to knock Shinx's ball off his belt, jumping off Tyranitar's shoulder onto the floor. A brief but powerful flamethrower is all that's needed to dispose of the chains binding Hugo's arms together as part of the handcuffs. Seconds later, Dawn is free too, and the pair stand in the remains of what was moments ago a high tech lab.
"Idiots." Hugo remarks, as he swings open the double doors the workers had just fleed through. There's some stairs leading downwards.
"Looks like we're in their base..." Hugo frowns.
"Whose base? What's going on?!" Dawn panicks.
Hugo fans his arms downwards, indicating to calm down. "Relax. Leaf told me all she knew about these guys… which wasn't much."
"Huh?" Dawn doesn't understand.
"This is Leaf's Mother's criminal gang. They brought us here purposely. They know we've been travelling with Leaf."
"What? How do they know that?"
"Beats me. But I'm guessing we're about to find out."
A small hole opens in the corner of the ceiling, and a television screen is lowered via machine onto the wall in front of Dawn and Hugo.
"Don't trust or believe anything." Hugo warns.
A woman in her 50's appears on the screen. She's sat at a desk, stroking one of those annoying cat things from Sinnoh. A Glameow, apparently. She's blonde, with an almost perfectly horizontal scar on her left cheek. Her smile is very confident.
"We meet at last, Hugo and Dawn. I'm Sarah, or as you may know me, Leaf's mother."
Dawn looks nervous and stays silent. She twiddles her thumbs, without even realising it she shuffles slightly closer to Hugo.
"What do you want?" Hugo asks.
"To talk." Sarah explains.
"Of course! They always want to talk! What else would they want, these gangsters?"
"Please, think of me not as a gangster, but as a brave leader."
"Whatever."
"Anyway, it has come to my attention that you've been travelling a fair distance in order to find me, correct?"
Hugo and Dawn nod.
"Well I saved you the trouble, and brought you here myself."
"Look, Leaf is-"
"Ill? Mad? Insane? Which one were you gonna use? 'Cause all three are fucking true!"
"She needs help. You need to help her."
"ME? When YOU were the one who did this to her?! Making her feel guilty about EATING of all things! What a selfish and horrible young man!"
Hugo is very confused.
"Oh, wondering how I know this are we? Haven't you seen? Using the incredibly intellectual DNA of a mega Alakazam, my company..."
"Gang..."
"Ahem. My COMPANY have developed a scanner that can read people's emotions either in general or towards a specific person. Now, an employee of mine has been secretly following you lot for a while. And it seems MY DAUGHTER is ill because of YOU!"
"Not that you'd care."
"I came all the way back to that damn freezing cold village to let my little girl know that I'd chosen her as my successor, and what do I find? She's run away. Because of YOU!" Sarah looks really pissed off, pointing an accusing finger at Hugo.
"Now, you know what I'm gonna do to get my own back?"
Hugo sighs. "Ooh, let me guess. Kill me? Torture me? Take me prisoner?"
"You took the girl I care most about. So I'm gonna take the girl YOU care most about!"
Suddenly, a metal cage door is lowered into the space between Hugo and Dawn and the exit, effectively trapping them. At the same time, the television screen slowly begins to raise back into the ceiling.
"By the way, how'd you like our actor's performances earlier? Nothing like filling the enemy with a sense of overconfidence. Complete with fake computers and plastic bullets." As she finishes speaking, the screen is switched off as the small gap in the ceiling is closed electronically.
"Wait, what-" Hugo realises just how smart this woman is. She's completely outwitted him, and he's fallen into her trap with ease.
"Hugo, what's going on? I don't like this..."
Poor Dawn hasn't been in this situation before, and she looks pale from fear.
Before Hugo has the chance to say anything back, he sees a familiar sight that he really REALLY didn't want to see ever again. One of those strange looking balls of energy that Giovanni used back in Viridian City. The one that emitted mind controlling waves.
"Tyrainitar, ret-"
Hugo attempts to get his rock and dark type safely back in its ball, but the waves being emitted by the energy ball are jamming the pokéball's energy transmission.
"Oooh, I don't feel so good..." Dawn keels over, clutching her stomach.
"RAAAA!" Tyranitar looks like its in pain, closing its eyes and putting its hands over its ears.
"Quick, think Hugo, think..." How do you destroy a ball of energy? Hugo has no idea, but he's gonna try anyway.
"Shinx! Flamethrower!"
Shinx breathes powerful flames, but they merely go through it.
"Damn it! It's never that easy, is it?"
"Nyaaaaaaah!" Dawn groans in pain.
"Must… resist… NYAH!"
Dawn's eyes begin to glow red, as she glares directly at Hugo.
"Ugh… for the glory of Team Oblivion, I have to fight you, you sexy beast."
"Wait, what..."
"You may be hot as hell, but I have to take you down."
With her eyes still glowing red, Dawn gives Hugo a flirty smile.
"This is the weirdest thing ever..."
"RAAAAAAAAAAA!" Now Tyranitar's eyes are glowing red too.
"Well, here we go Shinx, LET'S DO THIS!"
"Now Tyranitar will listen to me, babe!"
"What did you just call me?"
"Sorry babe, can't hear you over the sound of ME ABOUT TO KICK YOUR ARSE! Tyranitar, use stone edge!"
"Huh, well me and Shinx have been practising some brand new moves Shinx can't normally learn. Quick, double team!"
Shinx rapidly multiplies itself so fifteen shinx sorround Tyranitar, whose attack misses.
"Aw, babe, that's so sweet! NOW USE EARTHQUAKE!" The attack instantly eliminates all of Shinx's copies, while the real one leaps high into the air.
"Dawn, what the hell? Snap out of this! And Shinx, go for karate chop!"
In an impressive move, Shinx takes advantage of its messeed up moveset by using a fighting type move on Tyranitar. The rock and dark type is taken by surprise and feels the BURN.
"NOOOO! Don't do this Hugo! Don't beat me! If you beat me, that lady might hurt me-"
Hugo pauses for a moment, staring into space.
"You know, I always had the biggest crush on you, babe. Now, please let me win. Use hyper beam!"
Hugo is unable to react as Tyranitar hits Shinx with a powerful beam out of its eyes.
"Woooo! After this is all over, let's go out for dinner somewhere, just you and-" "ENOUGH!" Dawn's sentence is cut off by Hugo, who sounds pissed off.
"Nice act, but I've got you all figured out now."
"Huh? Sweetie, what do you mean?" Dawn looks confused and sounds nervous.
"Shinx, use karate chop again, but change your target!" To Dawn's surprise, Hugo points directly at her.
"Shiiiiiiiiiiinx!" With complete trust in its trainer, Shinx launches an all out attack on Dawn.
"WAAAAAH! What are you-ZOOOOOOOOR!"
The instant Shinx's attack lands, Zorua's disguise is broken, no longer possessing the strength to disguise itself as Dawn, it falls to the ground, fainted.
Hugo ia not done there, he climbs upon Tyranitar's back, who is still recovering from hyper beam, sits on its shoulder and yells as loud as his lungs will allow into its ear.
"TYRANITAR!" He screams louder than he's ever screamed before.
"RAAAAAA!" The armour pokémon's reaction is to fling Hugo off its shoulder. It seems to have worked though. The red glowing eyes are gone.
"Welcome back buddy." Hugo smiles. "Sorry for shouting in your ear. Now get some rest." Tyranitar is returned to its pokéball.
The television screen has been lowered back onto the wall, Sarah's face appears on it once again.
"I must admit it, you're smarter than you look. According to my research team, you shouldn't have ever heard of a Zorua!" Sarah gives a sarcastic applause.
Hugo and Shinx glare up at the screen. "A what?" Hugo asks, clueless.
"Zorua, from the Unova region."
"From the oven region? Never heard of it!"
"No, from the Unova region! It's a faraway land, has over one hundred and fifty exclusive species of pokémon. For a while, pokémon from outside the region didn't exist there."
"Sounds like a boring place… I bet some of the pokémon look really stupid too. Like, an ice cream cone or a pile of rubbish. Ha! Imagine that!"
"Ahem… anyway. You're probably wondering what we did with Dawn."
"Oh, well, I guess so."
"Don't worry. She's safe..."
"Cool. So I'll leave th-"
"...For now."
Hugo rolls his eyes. "Ugh! There's always a catch! What do you want?"
"I want my daughter."
Hugo sighs. "So what you're saying is, in order to free my friend who's currently held captive, you want me to turn in my friend so you can hold them captive. Sounds like a great idea!"
"LET ME FINISH YOU ANNOYING BRAT!… Ahem. Excuse me. I want to speak with her. That is all."
"Yeah, sure..."
"Do as I ask, or your friend gets it."
"Cool. I'll do it."
"Excellent. The exit is now opening for you. You must take the stairs leading UP in order to exit. DO NOT take the stairs leading down."
Hugo nods, makes his way to the exit, and instantly dashes down the stairs.
"I've got a better idea, bitch!" He mutters to himself as he and Shinx run as fast as they can down the stairs.
Back in the skies, Leaf is still riding on the pheonix pokémon. They are now flying over the sea, and beginning to descend. The pheonix pokémon dives down at an incredible speed, landing on a small rock. When it lands it simply sits down, enabling Leaf to easily climb off its back. Staravia is nowhere in sight, but hopefully it's somewhere safe. The rock, while not wide or long, is high up, a good thirty or forty metres above sea level. There are powerful waves crashing against the sides.
"Treeeees!" The pheonix pokémon gestures with its head towards the back of the small rock. There's a narrow staircase leading into a cavern. The bird would not fit through.
"Um… ok. Thanks for the lift!" Leaf says nervously. She slowly and cautiously makes her way down the stairs, her weak legs trembling with fear of this unknown location.
"Oooooh, I really wish Hugo was here."
The stairs lead into a dark cave. Or at least, it appears that way at first glance. At second glance, though, Leaf can see a faint light in the distance. She makes her way through the darkness, finding that nothing seems to be there besides rock. As she gets closer, she sees that the light is coming from a single lantern. An unfamiliar pokémon is levitating beside it. It appears to be sleeping.
"Um… hello." Leaf says to the pokémon. "Can you hear me?"
There is no response.
"Um… I think I was sent to you. Maybe you know why?"
The sleeping pokémon is short, white and humanoid with short stubby legs. On its head is an almost star shaped yellow structure with three blue tags hanging off.
As if compelled by a mysterious power, Leaf realises what she must do. So closes her eyes, puts her hands together at her chest, and think about what she truly desires. Before she knows it, a light begins to flash. "WAAAAA!" Leaf wails.
Hugo's plan to storm the base isn't going so well. He's a bit lost. He runs aimlessly around the base, searching many rooms. The majority are accommodation for the gang members who live here. Some are research rooms. He stumbles into one lab, and an automatic door locks him in as soon as he and Shinx enter. There is only one other person in this room, a woman with dark plum hair.
"Hello Hugo."
"Um...hi?"
"I am Professor Ivy. I once worked with your friend Brock. Please, take a seat."
Hugo might be surprised by a total stranger seemingly knowing lots about him, but it's happened so much lately, he doesn't even bother to ask how any more. The whole time she speaks, professor Ivy is sat at a desk with her eyes glued to a computer screen, typing away at a keyboard.
"Um… don't suppose you could let me out?"
"Not yet. We need to talk first."
The professor spends another moment typing away at her keyboard, until at last she swivels her chair to face Hugo.
"Before you can go anywhere, I want to study your Shinx."
"Not gonna happen. We need to get out now." Hugo taps his feet impatiently as he spins around on his chair. Shinx looks ready to attack the professor.
"Thought you'd say that. Okay, I have a phone call to make. Hang on."
Hugo is tempted to just attack this woman, but he figures he might be trapped here for good if he does.
"Here we are." Ivy's computer obviously has phone calling capabilities too, on her screen now appears Brock's face.
"Hello? Who is- WAAAAAAAH!" The screen is zoomed in on Brock with only the sky to be seen behind him, so you can't tell where he is, but he looks shocked to see Ivy.
"Hello Brock." She smiles.
"I don't want to speak with you." Brock replies, about to put his phone down.
"I have Hugo." She grins.
Brock hesitates for a moment, then notices Hugo in the background.
"Tell him it's okay for me to do some tests on his Shinx."
Brock looks incredibly uncomfortable, sweat visible on his face.
"Yeah, buddy, she would never hurt your Shinx. It's fine." He says with little confidence.
"What?!" Hugo is confused as to why Brock is acting so strange.
"Look, I don't want to talk about it, but you can trust Ivy. I have to go. Wherever you are, hurry back to us. We'll wait for you in Lavender Town."
The phone call is cut off.
"See? Your best friend says it's fine."
"Fine..." Hugo reluctantly agrees. "What type of test?"
"It's simple. I want to give it a thorough scan. It will cause it some minor discomfort. Nothing more."
Hugo kneels down beside his partner.
"Okay buddy, if you feel anything wrong with this at all, give me a signal and Tyranitar will destroy this place." "Shiiiiinx" The electric type doesn't seem bothered, and is happy to participate if it means they can get out of here.
"I just need it to stand in that machine over there for about two minutes. Then I can get a complete analysis."
"Then we can leave?"
"Yes. I promise."
Shinx goes into the small pod-like machine. A green light glows on and off for the next two minutes, then it stops.
"Okay, it's all done. How was it Shinx?"
"Shiiiiinx!" The electric type looks like it found the sensation fairly enjoyable.
Ivy sits back at her computer screen. "Now for the results… ooh. Oh my. This is interesting. It appears there is something serious to look at here."
"Serious?" Hugo is interested now.
"Yes. Very much so. Shinx has a tumour on its brain."
"A tumour? Like, one that could kill it?"
"Hmm… difficult to say. You see, with Shinx being an electric type, the activity level of its brain's electrical impulses is much higher than for a person or any other pokémon type. In other words, its brain is so powerful, it seems to not only be preventing the tumour from growing further, but also using its size as additional space to store extra information a Shinx couldn't normally be capable of storing – oh my! That's it! What an incredible scientific breakthrough! Hugo! This is revolutionary!"
Hugo scratches his head. "So what you're saying is Shinx has a brain tumour, and that's enabling it to learn lots of different, unique moves?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying! Your Shinx truly is one-of-a-kind!"
"Hmm..." Hugo stares into space for a moment.
"If Shinx has a tumour, could that have been gained from..."
"If you're wondering about your own brain, now that I know the target area of the scan, I can scan you using my portable scanner. It should only take a moment."
"Sure. Go ahead."
Professor Ivy uses her portable scanner (which looks like a TV remote) to shoot some green lights at Hugo. She presses some buttons and an image pops up on her computer screen. It's an image of Hugo's brain, except there's a bulgy red patch at the side.
"That's..." Hugo stutters.
"I am afraid your worst fears are confirmed. There is indeed a tumour on YOUR brain too."
"But… it can't..."
"It appears to be growing slowly. It is what we in the science world call a benign tumour. It is, however, at risk of growing faster in the near future, we'd call this a malignant tumour."
"Thanks for the science lesson… so I'm dying..."
"Don't worry. This type of tumour is treatable...but..."
"There's always a catch..."
"I don't believe you'll be able to find that sort of treatment available at an affordable price here in Kanto. The closest place I'm aware of that could give you some treatment is Lumiose City."
"Where?"
"In the Kalos region."
Hugo's eyes widen in surprise.
"Uh oh. When will I find the time to go to Kalos?"
Professor Ivy frowns. "Hugo, I highly recommend that you postpone whatever you're doing and head to Kalos to seek immediate treatment. This is a very serious condition."
"Don't suppose you know the side effects of a tumour caused by having your memory distorted?"
"I don't, but I imagine that, as your tumour grows, it could lead to some very strange behaviour patterns. Especially if somebody were to talk about a memory that is being suppressed by your tumour."
Hugo has a sudden flashback. He thinks about Erika, and how he involuntarily almost choked her to death in the heat of the moment.
"This is not good..." Hugo rests his elbows at Ivy's desk, with his chin resting on his hands.
"Hugo, I must assure you that I am not a bad person. I have been helping out Sarah and her gang in exchange for using her facilities, as they truly are state-of-the-art. In fact, I can give you directions to find Dawn and get out of here."
"Really? That would be great!"
"Yes, but remember, a lot of research has been done on you around here. Everyone knows all about you and will do their best to outsmart you at every opportunity."
"No need to worry, I've got this." Hugo winks.
"I'm sorry for forcing you to participate in my research, Hugo. But I knew this was a once In a lifetime opportunity, so I did what I had to do." Ivy says as she unlocks the door.
"I understand. Thanks for your help!" With that, Hugo dashes off… or not.
"WE'VE GOT YOU NOW!"
Dozens of members of Team Oblivion are waiting for Hugo as he exits the room. Dawn is with them, this time presumably the real Dawn, looking miserable, her hands stuck in handcuffs at the other end of the corridor. Every one of the twelve or so criminals with black suits that face Hugo are pointing a gun at him.
Hugo raises his arms towards the ceiling in surrender. Things look bad. When all of a sudden...
FLASH!
In an instant, Hugo finds that he is once again teleported. He looks around. He is now standing on… the roof of a tall tower? He peers over the edge of the roof… yikes! It's so high up they're above the clouds! Standing (and sitting) beside him are Misty, Brock, Dawn and Leaf. The latter being the only one who doesn't look really confused.
"Wh-where are we?" Brock asks, who has been transported here along with his wheelchair.
"Beats me. But it can't be worse than where I just was!" Dawn exclaims.
"OVER THERE!" Leaf yells, in an uncharacteristic display of confidence. "WE HAVE TO STOP HIM!"
At the other side of the roof, a tall man and a Snorlax have their backs to the group.
"OH MIGHTY RAYQUAZA! ACCEPT MY HUMAN SACRIFICE AND REVEAL YOURSELF!"
It's Dan! And at the edge of the roof, with their arms and legs chained to a post… it's Erika!?
"MRRRF! MRRRF!" Erika mumbles, her mouth taped shut.
"What the..." Hugo is confused.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" A deafening cry can be heard from above.
"Oh shit, things are about to turn nasty!" Brock comments.
"Quick, let's stop him!" Misty adds.
"CROAGUNK!" Brock launches his companion. "PIPLUP!" Dawn follows suit. "GYARADOS!" Misty is next. "SHINX!" Hugo comes fourth. "STARAVIA!" Leaf throws in her companion too, sounding the most confident out of anyone.
"ATTACK!" All five pokémon launch attacks simultaneously. Piplup uses bubble beam. Gyarados uses hydro pump. Croagunk uses poison jab. Shinx uses thunder. Staravia uses aerial ace.
BAM! This surprise attack hits Snorlax REALLY hard, who couldn't hear a thing due to a constant thunderous sound coming from above.
"WHAT IS THIS-" Dan turns around, clearly pissed off.
"NOW! GO!" Brock yells. In his wheelchair, he charges towards Dan. As he gets near him, he throws his body at him, knocking him to the floor. Hugo sprints past them at lightning pace. The thunderous sound is now almost unbearably loud.
"RAAAAAAAAAAY!" Is the scream from above.
Hugo puts every ounce of energy into his sprint. He dives towards Erika, rugby tackling her. Within half a second of him pushing her out of the way, an unbelievably powerful bean of light, appearing to be a hyper beam attack, obliterates the spot where Erika had just been. Unfortunately for Hugo and Erika, Hugo is unable to halt his momentum, and the pair fall off the top of the tower. With his arms still wrapped around Erika from tackling her, Hugo shuts his eyes as they fall, hoping for a miracle. Which is exactly what he gets!
FLASH!
Hugo opens his eyes to find that he is now on solid ground. He looks around to see the whole gang still there – Brock, Misty, Dawn and Leaf. They are all laughing at him… oops. He's still got his arms around Erika, so it looks like he's hugging her.
"YUCK!" Hugo lets go immediately. Erika is now free of restraints, able to walk and talk as normal.
"GET THE FUCK OFF ME!" She screams in a panic reaction.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?! I'M FUCKING TERRIFIED!"
Erika is still shaken up by what just happened, as the rest of the gang look around. Somehow, after everything that just happened, they have ended up at the exit of Rock Tunnel, the place they'd originally been trying to meet up. It's now late and the sun has set.
"Okay, would somebody like to explain exactly WHAT is going on?" Misty asks.
"Some sort of miracle?" Dawn wonders, also free of the cuffs that she wore a moment ago.
"Well that was certainly interesting..." Brock chuckles.
Leaf wears a cheerful grin on her face, catching everyone's attention.
"Leaf!" Brock exclaims. "You know what just happened?"
"Well, um..." Leaf tries to talk, returning to her usual, nervous self. "There was this big fire bird, and it took me to a strange place with this sleeping pokémon. Then I wished we could be wherever we most needed to be. So here we are..."
Misty looks confused. "Wait… what?!"
Brock smiles. "Well, it sounds like we've all had quite the adventure today. Hugo, anything you wanna tell us? Like how were you with…" Brock shudders uncontrollably. "...Her!" He wears a distant expression, obviously talking about Professor Ivy.
Dawn answers for him. "Well, me and Hugo were teleported to the base of Team Oblivion, the gang lead by Leaf's mum… and we got captured."
"Oh yeah, I saw a weird pokémon that pretended to be Dawn. I'd never seen one before. It was from the Oven region!"
"Um, ok… anything else?" Misty questions.
"Well, Ivy did this experiment on Shinx and..."
"Yes?" Misty prompts him to continue, Hugo realises everyone is listening.
"...And it was a total waste of time! She couldn't figure out why Shinx has a distorted memory!" He lies.
"Oh, that's a shame… oh well." Misty shrugs.
"OKAY, CAN SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON, PLEASE?!" Erika screams.
"Geez, calm down." Hugo frowns. "And stop swearing so much!"
"I'll swear as much as I fucking want to, you twat!"
"You're welcome, by the way." Hugo grins.
"For what, throwing me off the edge of a fucking tower?!"
"Um… you two have met?" Misty asks.
Hugo frowns. "Unfortunately."
"Is she always like this?" Asks Dawn.
"She's usually worse..." Hugo continues to frown.
"Hey! I'm right here, bitch! SHE has a name! I'm Erika, Celadon's gym leader! The greatest fucking gym leader Celadon's ever fucking seen!"
"Can you say a sentence without swearing?" Hugo chuckles.
"Fucking no chance!" Erika fumes. "Now where are you bastards going?"
The whole gang stare at each other.
"Um… Vermillion?" Hugo asks.
Dawn shakes her head. "If that crazy bitch wants to come to us, she will. Let's head for Fuschia City."
Before anyone else gets the chance to speak, a mobile phone begins to ring. 'BZZT BZZT! BZZT BZZT!'
"Hello?" Brock answers the phone. "Ah yes, yes he's here with me. Ok. Mmmhmm. Got it. That's great! We're near Lavender Town at the moment, actually. Ok. Will do! Thanks! Bye!"
"Hugo, it was your brother, Hubert. He's flying over here next week. He lands in Viridian City in seven days time."
Hugo facepalms hard. "Damn it! What an idiot! Why's he even coming here? He'll get himself killed!"
"I dunno, but I guess that means we really need to get a move on and get to the Safari Zone as soon as possible!" Brock announces.
"Let's go to Vermillion City first!" Leaf exclaims.
Everyone is surprised. They all turn and stare at Leaf.
"I'll deal with my Mum."
"L-leaf! Who knows what she'll do to you?!" Dawn is stunned. "You should see what she almost did to me!" She shudders.
"Maybe we can get her on our side? She can help us defeat that bad guy with the Snorlax." Leaf suggests.
"Dan..." Erika sounds distant.
"You guys don't wanna be dealing with that shit. You don't know what that man's capable of, he was about to sacrifice me to Rayquaza just so he could SPEAK with it!"
Now the whole gang turn to face Erika.
"Did- did you find out what his plans are?" Asks Hugo.
Erika makes the most serious expression Hugo's ever seen her make. "Fuck yeah I did. And you're not gonna like them one bit..."
If you're a little confused, just be aware that Hugo and Shinx's memories are distorted due to a pokémon known as 'Oblistrum' that was the main antagonist of my first story. This is the reason they both suffer from a brain tumour. Hugo's brother, Hubert, is a character from that story.
Thanks so much for reading! See you in the next chapter!
